The present invention relates to improvements in basketball backboard construction. Ideally, a basketball backboard should be reasonably lightweight, durable, preferably weatherproof for outdoor installations. It should present a flat unbroken playing (rebounding) surface so that a basketball will have a true bounce therefrom. Within the impact force range of the basketball with respect to the playing surface, the board should have no "dead spots" i.e. local deflection areas which would affect the consistency of the bounce. Finally, mounting stresses, whether the board is single, multi-pole or bracket mounted and stresses caused by hoop deflections should be so transmitted and distributed by the backboard construction so as to eliminate distortion of the rebounding surface.
Many attempts have heretofore been made to achieve some or all of the above objectives; however, the discovery of how properly to integrate design with commercially feasible materials to achieve each and every one of the above-stated objective ideals has not, until the present invention, been made.
Commensurate with achieving integration of all of the stated objectives, a unitary construction of rigid, durable cast material was chosen, for example, cast aluminum, U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,642 is illustrative of one prior attempt to mold a backboard of cast fiberglass but has several deficiencies. Although integrally cast ribs are included in that design, the placement and number of such ribs does not minimize the use of cast material and does not optimally maximize reinforcement in critical areas susceptible of local deflection; nor does that design ideally distribute other stress forces induced by mounting and hoop deflections. The backboard construction provided by the present invention uniquely solves these and other difficulties.